Liberals Vs. The Troops In Quotes

In honor of Tom Harkin’s latest moronic comments about John McCain not being a good candidate for President because he spent too much time in the military, I present to you, “Liberals Vs. The Troops In Quotes.” Enjoy the Left-Wing version of “supporting the troops!”

“…This NBC report is just an ugly reminder of the price we pay for a mercenary – oops sorry, volunteer – force that thinks it is doing the dirty work.” — Washington Post blogger, William Arkin

“Through every Abu aib and Haditha, through every rape and murder, the American public has indulged those in uniform….We pay the soldiers a decent wage, take care of their families, provide them with housing and medical care and vast social support systems and ship obscene amenities into the war zone for them, we support them in every possible way, and their attitude is that we should in addition roll over and play dead, defer to the military and the generals and let them fight their war, and give up our rights and responsibilities to speak up because they are above society?…[T]he recent NBC report is just an ugly reminder of the price we pay for a mercenary — oops sorry, volunteer — force that thinks it is doing the dirty work.” — Washington Post blogger, William Arkin

“One of the losers in the weekend oratorical marathon was retired Gen. Wesley Clark, who repeatedly invoked the West Point motto of ‘Duty, Honor, Country,’ forgetting that few in this particular audience (at the Democratic National Committee) have much experience with, or sympathy for, the military.” — Liberal columnist David Broder

“American fighters of the Pacific War were not heroes. The desperation of island combat included exchanged barbarities of which no one would willingly speak for a generation. On the American side, there were foul racism, vengeful refusals to take prisoners, a generalized brutality that extended to a savage air war.” — James Carroll in the Boston Globe

“Code Pink, a leftist anti-war group, began protesting the nine-month-old recruitment center on Sept. 26. The group posted signs saying ‘recruiters are traitors’ and ‘recruiters lie, children die.’

The group also sent a message to their supporters saying: ‘The Marines have landed in Berkeley! We are shocked and infuriated they have opened a despicable Officer Recruiting Station just blocks from Berkeley High School, UCB and Berkeley City college. We are determined to SHUT DOWN this recruiting station and we need your help! Tell the Marines NO Military Predators in our town!!! Protect our vulnerable youth!'” — Code Pink via CNS News

“For those of you who do, as a matter of principle, oppose war in any form, the idea of supporting a conscientious objector who’s already been inducted [and] in his combat service in Iraq might have a certain appeal. But let me ask you this: Would you render the same support to someone who hadn’t conscientiously objected, but rather instead rolled a grenade under their line officer in order to neutralize the combat capacity of their unit?”

Later, in a question-and-answer period, Churchill was asked whether the trauma “fragging” inflicts on that officer’s family back home should be considered, he responded: “How do you feel about Adolf Eichmann’s family?” — From Ward Churchill via WorldNetDaily

“Real freedom will come when [U.S.] soldiers in Iraq turn their guns on their superiors.” — Warren County Community College adjunct English professor, John Daly

“On one occasion, the air conditioning had been turned down so far and the temperature was so cold in the room, that the barefooted detainee was shaking with cold. ….. On another occasion, the [air conditioner] had been turned off, making the temperature in the unventilated room well over 100 degrees. The detainee was almost unconscious on the floor, with a pile of hair next to him. He had apparently been literally pulling his hair out throughout the night. On another occasion, not only was the temperature unbearably hot, but extremely loud rap music was being played in the room, and had been since the day before, with the detainee chained hand and foot in the fetal position on the tile floor.

If I read this to you and did not tell you that it was an FBI agent describing what Americans had done to prisoners in their control, you would most certainly believe this must have been done by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime–Pol Pot or others–that had no concern for human beings. Sadly, that is not the case. This was the action of Americans in the treatment of their prisoners.” — Democratic Senator Dick Durbin

“What outrages me as a representative of journalists is that there’s not more outrage about the number, and the brutality, and the cavalier nature of the U.S. military toward the killing of journalists in Iraq….They target and kill journalists … uh, from other countries, particularly Arab countries like Al -, like Arab news services like Al-Jazeera, for example. They actually target them and blow up their studios with impunity….” — Newspaper Guild President Linda Foley

“Democrat flaks jump on this like ducks on a June-bug, and in the process themselves reproduce the sick militarism of this culture that automatically valorizes anyone who wears a uniform. How dare you insult a soldier! Like its some sacred calling instead of an imperial employment program steeped in the culture of machismo and misogyny.(And you can gasp as theatrically as you want… I spent more than two decades wearing a uniform… that is exactly what it is.)” — Stan Goff at the Huffington Post

“Republican presidential candidate John McCain’s family background as the son and grandson of admirals has given him a worldview shaped by the military, “and he has a hard time thinking beyond that,” Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Ia., said Friday.

“I think he’s trapped in that,” Harkin said in a conference call with Iowa reporters. “Everything is looked at from his life experiences, from always having been in the military, and I think that can be pretty dangerous.”

Harkin said that “it’s one thing to have been drafted and served, but another thing when you come from generations of military people and that’s just how you’re steeped, how you’ve learned, how you’ve grown up.”

…He said that “I just want to be very clear there’s nothing wrong with a career in the military” and that he has friends who are generals and admirals who have served the country well.

“But now McCain is running for a higher office. He’s running for commander in chief, and our Constitution says that should be a civilian,” Harkin said. “And in some ways, I think it would be nice if that commander in chief had some military background, but I don’t know if they need a whole lot.” — Tom Harkin

“In Vietnam, our soldiers came back and they were reviled as baby killers, in shame and humiliation. It isn’t happening now, but I will tell you, there has never been an [American] army as violent and murderous as our army has been in Iraq.” — Seymour Hersh

“Is your enemy the state?
Befriend a recruiter and keep your friends close and your enemies closer!…

This campaign is not about (badgering?) recruiters. It is solely about making friends and finding out more about the military that you don’t trust…

Actions to take:…
Prank-call a recruiter to schedule appointments on the other side of town.
Ask a recruiter to pick you up and then tell them you’re hungry.
Ask a recruiter to take you out to eat.” — A flier from Iraq Vets Against the War

“One could say that Osama bin Laden and these non-nation-state fighters with religious purpose are very similar to those kind of atypical revolutionaries that helped to cast off the British crown.” — Marcy Kaptur – Democratic Representative Ohio

“THE United States now has a mercenary army. To be sure, our soldiers are hired from within the citizenry, unlike the hated Hessians whom George III recruited to fight against the American Revolutionaries. But like those Hessians, today’s volunteers sign up for some mighty dangerous work largely for wages and benefits….” — David M. Kennedy in the New York Times

“You know, education, if you make the most of it, if you study hard and you do your homework, and you make an effort to be smart, uh, you, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq.” — John Kerry, in what he later claimed was a botched joke.

“I don’t want to sound like an ad, a public service ad on TV, but the fact is if you can read, you can walk into a job later on. If you don’t, then you’ve got, the Army, Iraq, I don’t know, something like that. It’s, it’s not as bright. So, that’s my little commercial for that.” — Stephen King

“The Iraqis who have risen up against the occupation are not ‘insurgents’ or ‘terrorists’ or ‘The Enemy.’ They are the REVOLUTION, the Minutemen, and their numbers will grow — and they will win.” — Michael Moore

“There is, Hugh, I agree with you, a deep anti-military bias in the media. One that begins from the premise that the military must be lying, and that American projection of power around the world must be wrong. I think that is a hangover from Vietnam, and I think it’s very dangerous. That’s different from the media doing its job of challenging the exercise of power without fear or favor.” — Liberal ABC reporter, Terry Moran

“General Petraeus or General Betray Us? …Today, before Congress and the American people, General Petraeus is likely to become General Betray Us.” — MoveOn

“Our troops overreacted because of the pressure on them, and they killed innocent civilians in cold blood.” — John Murtha smears the troops on Haditha

“…(P)erhaps some readers will understand why my friends and I rip yellow ribbon ‘support the troops’ magnets off of cars or wherever people have affixed them. By ripping off these ribbons, we find a way to deal with our guilt, as though with each ribbon swiped we take back a life that was taken by this senseless war started by our senseless president and those who support him.

I will never say, ‘support the troops.’ I don’t believe in the validity of that statement. People say, ‘I don’t support the war, I support the troops’ as though you can actually separate the two. You cannot; the troops are a part of the war, they have become the war and there is no valid dissection of the two. Other people shout with glaring eyes that we should give up our politics, give up our political affiliations in favor of ‘just supporting the troops.’ I wish everything were that easy.” — Thomas Naughton at the Daily Collegian

“If John Kerry thinks this war is a mistake and if the United States of America elects him president, the troops are going to have to live with that. And they know better than anyone else whether it was a mistake or not. I don’t care if they’re demoralized. They have to go to war and be prepared.” — Lawrence O’Donnell shows his “support” for the troops on the “McLaughlin Group”

“On Wednesday, March 19, POG will be holding a torch-lit march to a modern day castle of abominations–our local military recruiting station. If the station remains open, we intend to evict it and everything inside of it, occupy the location, and transform it into something useful for the community. We’ll also be bringing a movable cage in which to confine military recruiters until they no longer pose a danger to our friends and neighbors.” — The Pittsburgh Organizing Group

“Do our government’s poorly paid contract killers deserve our ‘support’ for blindly following orders?” — Ted Rall

“Over time, however, the endless war in Iraq began to play a role in natural selection. Only idiots signed up; only idiots died. Back home, the average I.Q. soared.” — Ted Rall

“OK, lefties? You can drop the ‘support the troops’ shtick now.” — Ted Rall

“The word ‘hero’ has been bandied about a lot to refer to anyone killed in Afghanistan or Iraq. But anyone who voluntarily goes to Afghanistan or Iraq [as a soldier] is fighting for an evil cause under an evil commander in chief.” — Ted Rall

“If a young fella has an option of having a decent career or joining the army to fight in Iraq, you can bet your life that he would not be in Iraq.” — Charles Rangel

“You don’t have money to fund the war or children, but you’re going to spend it to blow up innocent people if we could get enough kids to grow old enough for you to send to Iraq to get their heads blown off for the president’s amusement.” — Democratic Congressman Pete Stark

“In the recent political battle around the Marine recruiting station in Berkeley there has been much confusion around the concept or slogan of ‘supporting the troops,’ but opposing the unjust wars of the Bush regime. Many who oppose the Bush regime wars also say they ‘support the troops.’ Let me say it straight out–I do not support the troops and neither should you. It is objectively impossible to support the troops of the imperialist military forces of the U.S. and at the same time oppose the wars in which they fight.” — Kenneth Thiese from The Berkeley Daily Planet

“The Pentagon as a legitimate target? I actually don’t have an opinion on that.” — ABC News President David Westin

“I feel nothing over the death of mercenaries. They are there to wage war for profits, screw them.” — Markos Moulitsas Zuniga on the death of four American contractors, all of whom were former soldiers, in Fallujah

Share this!

Enjoy reading? Share it with your friends!